Classic Tresor albums from Drexciya and more reissued

Tresor are reissuing a number of their classic albums on CD and vinyl, including Drexciya‘s hard-to-find 1999 offering Neptune’s Lair.

Peerless Drexciya archivists Clone Records describe Neptune’s Lair as “one of the greatest electro albums ever, period”, and, as usual, they’re absolutely spot-on. Arguably James Stinson and Gerald Donald’s most colourful and fully-realised album, it’s positively suffused with melancholy, mysticism and uncontainable alien energy, and production-wise every track is just killer – though we reserve special praise for ‘Andreaen Sand Dunes’, ‘Universal Element’ and wistful closer ‘C To The Power Of X + C To The Power Of X = MM = Unknown’. Though the album has been repressed before, second-hand vinyl copies on Discogs are still priced at around £30, so this double-LP 2010 edition is very welcome indeed.

But that’s not all: Tresor are releasing 2010 editions of Jeff Mills‘s Waveform Transmissions Vol.1 (1992) and Waveform Transmissions Vol.3 (1994), on both CD and double-vinyl, and there are CD-only are reissues of Daniel Bell‘s Globus Mix Vol.4, Scion‘s Arrange And Process Basic Channel Tracks and Juan Atkins‘ 20 Years of Metroplex: 1985-2005. The latter two in particular are must-haves.

Arrange And Process finds Scion – the duo of René Löwe (AKA Vainqueur) and Peter Kuschnereit (AKA Substance, DJ Pete) – delivering a storming mix of re-edited Basic Channel productions. As well providing worthy testament to Löwe and Kuschnereit’s considerable studio skills, it’s also the best one-disc introduction to the sound of prime-time Mark Ernestus and Moritz Von Oswald that you’re ever likely to hear. 20 Years of Metroplex compiles 23 tracks produced by Juan Atkins under his own name and as Model 500, Infiniti, Cybotron and Visions. Featuring ‘No UFO’s’, ‘Night Drive (Thru Babylon)’, ‘Starlight’, ‘Cosmic Cars’ and much else besides, this is basically the Rosetta stone of Detroit techno and electro. Way, way beyond essential.

All these reissues are due to hit stores towards the end of May.

Tresor was founded by Dimitri Hegemann in 1991 as an extension of the Berlin club of the same name. Over the years it’s provided a home for the likes of Robert Hood, Blake Blaxter, Surgeon, Neil Landstrumm, Terrence Dixon and James Ruskin, as well as the aforementioned.